"Sister" Amy Archer-Gilligan (1873-1962)[1] was a
Connecticut
nursing-home proprietor and serial killer who systematically murdered
at least five people by poison; one was her second husband, Michael
Gilligan, and the rest were residents of her nursing home. It is
possible that she was involved in more deaths—authorities found 48
deaths total from her nursing homes.

Contents

Marriage

Archer and her first husband opened their original business,
Sister Amy's Nursing Home for the Elderly, in Newington, Connecticut, in 1901.
They were successful enough that in 1907 they opened the Archer
Home for the Elderly and Infirm, a newer and more modern
establishment, in Windsor. Archer's good luck seemed
to have ended with the new business, however. James Archer died
after the move; fortunately, Amy had taken out an insurance policy
on him a few weeks before his death, so she was able to continue
running the Archer Home. There was also Michael Gilligan, a wealthy
widower who was interested in both Amy and in investing in the
Archer Home. They married, but not long after, tragedy struck a
second time when Gilligan died suddenly. Archer-Gilligan was once
again fortunate financially: in their short marriage, her new
husband had found time to draw up a will, leaving her all his
estate.

Killings
& Capture

Since the Archer Home had opened, relatives of her clients had
grown suspicious as they tallied the large numbers of its residents
dying -- 48 in just five years, and many of those seemingly healthy
right till the end. The authorities were notified, and became
suspicious as well, particularly since Archer-Gilligan's clients
showed a pattern of dying not long after giving their caretaker
large sums of money. The rest home was raided, and arsenic was discovered.
Archer-Gilligan claimed she used the poison to kill rodents, but
when the bodies of her second husband and of four of her clients
were exhumed, they were found to have large quantities of
arsenic.

Arrest

Archer-Gilligan was arrested and tried for murder, originally on
five counts but ultimately, after successful pleadings by her
lawyer, on a single count (her last victim, Franklin R. Andrews).
She was convicted in 1917 and sent to the state prison in Wethersfield for
life. She was later placed in an insane asylum where she died in
1962 at the age of 89.

More
Deaths?

It's unknown how many more of the 48 deaths at the Archer Home
may have been helped along by Archer-Gilligan, or if the pattern
began even earlier, at Sister Amy's Nursing Home.

Publicity

The case attracted wide publicity at the time, and has been
cited as an inspiration for the play and later film, Arsenic and Old Lace.
Some have also claimed that hers was the first for-profit nursing home in the
United States. Also from 2006 a band called The Archer Home has
brought new attention to the case, by naming themselves after the
home in which the murders were carried out.

References

^
The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers by Michael Newton claims her
death was in 1962, at 89-years-old